7 Inherent Flaws In The Awesome BioShock Infinite

The original BioShock game is considered to be one of the finest achievements within the realms of video game design. If you were going to mount a serious case for “video games as art,” you might use BioShock as your prime example. In terms of aesthetic design, it’s up there with Shadow of the Colossus and Half-Life 2. Last week, the latest game in the series, BioShock Infinite, was released to overwhelmingly good reviews. It is, without a doubt, the best game I’ve played in a long, long time.

So why, exactly, has Infinite been bestowed with over 80 gaming awards and heaps of 5 star reviews? What makes it so good? Simply put, the game is an astounding artistic achievement: visionary and beautiful, it’s a wonder to behold. From an aesthetic perspective, it is damn near flawless. The world that the player travels over the course of the game, Columbia, is one of the most vivid and detailed gaming environments ever constructed.

Infinite also clings to a brilliantly dense and complex narrative that isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of what a “video game story” is: it tackles real issues – like religion, racism, politics, and morality – with superior, relevant intelligence. The characters are rich and vibrant and programmed to be like real people (seriously: this is the first game to ever feature an A.I. “companion” that won’t drive you crazy for a single second).

That’s not all: the game is unafraid to take its time, to give you moments to reflect and think on the consequences of your actions. Moments that allow for things like this to happen. When BioShock Infinite comes to an end, your personal journey with the game won’t: it stays with you. That said, the game is not perfect, nor is it lacking some inherent design flaws. Whereas the visuals, the characters, and the bold storyline can be praised almost extensively, there are certain aspects of BioShock Infinite that don’t quite gel.

Let me put this into perspective: I love this game. I think it’s something close to a masterpiece. It had a severe emotional affect on me, which – especially where video games are concerned – is something to be praised… well, infinitely. I completed it almost a week ago, and it’s still on my mind. But I want to take a look at what I believe to be some of the game’s lesser aspects – some that I feel could’ve been better realised.

Please note that there are some spoilers spread throughout the following article (I’ve tried to keep them to a minimum). If you’re haven’t played the game in full yet, I’d advise that you don’t read on.

I think the thing that bothers you about the ending, which of course was AWESOME, is the lack of foreshadowing, an essential part of storytelling. The secrets of the game are hinted at right up until the very end, but they’re very rarely just put directly in front of you in a way that makes you say, “Oh, I should have totally known that!” What we get instead are poorly executed, subtle and utterly meaningless hints, like the strange lady at the turnstile gate, rather than an attempt to actually play with the players’ mind. There actually should be a portion of players who get to the end of the game and go, “See? I was totally right about them being such and such! Remember that subtle hint from the first chapter?” Instead, what the game does is take everything that happened before and flip it on its head – you’re slammed with about ten plot points right at the end, and while the theory and emotion behind it all is wonderful, the affect is that they just tied a really great movie onto the end of a game that was essentially what it was advertised as – just fighting enemies to rescue a girl using time-space travel. What would have really helped this game was to have revealed the relationship story sooner – about halfway through (kind of like in the first game) – so that by the time we get to the ending, and the great crime is revealed, the ending story packs an even stronger emotional wallop.

I hate gamers these days – Bioshock Infinite is an incredible, original game that sticks it’s middle finger up to the dull and repetitive military shooters that dominate the market, and yet you STILL can’t help but write an article nitpicking at little things that didn’t quite go your way. It’s no bloody wonder companies are so afraid to take risks.

So, you hate gamers as a whole because someone didn’t keep their mouth shut about things they didn’t like about a game you did? To this person, these aren’t little things, they’re significant parts of the game and make the experience less than it could have been. They seem to have enjoyed the game in spite of these flaws, so why do you care? They didn’t slam the game and say nothing in favor of it, it was a thoughtful critique of the game as a whole.

To respond directly to your claims about the game, Infinite is not terribly original in many respects; the combat system is pretty par-for-the-course (generic guns, ADS for more accuracy, take cover and take potshots at enemies), the plot is very, very similar to the original BioShock (crazy leader of a crumbling city and a man who doesn’t know all about himself fighting through to get to him, then a plot twist at the end).

Maybe you liked the game, but that doesn’t mean everyone else has to, and writing them all off as whiny or nitpicking makes you look far worse than the people you complain about.